


it's timing

by thisisstateofgrace



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:33:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24051385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisstateofgrace/pseuds/thisisstateofgrace
Summary: robin breaks up with kevin that night
Relationships: Robin Scherbatsky/Barney Stinson
Kudos: 34





	it's timing

“barney stinson!” robin says, a little too loud, when they pull apart and she finally sees all the petals and candles in her room. “i can’t believe you!” she smiles teasingly.

“you better shut it”

“it’s perfect” she kisses his smile.

\-----------

she just told kevin and he’s not reacting well. she wishes she felt worse but she doesn’t. her thoughts are flying out the window, straight to a bar. she wishes she could just sprint out the door but she can’t do that. kevin’s sweet and he meant a lot to her so she’s gonna stay a while and talk to him. he asked if he knows the guy she cheated on him with and the look on his face when she answered "yes" was enough. of course, she doesn’t have to say his name. kevin yelled a little, they left the hospital reception, he got angry and then sad. then he just said he wanted to go home. 

so robin is late and her phone had died (of course) but she is going. she tells the cab driver to step on it and chuckles at her own desperation. screw it, this is something she’s been lying to herself about wanting for too long. 

on the way, she’s remembering the night before. there were parts of it that felt so rushed but others so slow and detailed in her mind, kind of like things were moving in a different timeline. but there was something more to it, it was the reasons she dismissed any thought about breaking up with kevin tomorrow, even after he told her he loved her and it felt like the coldest possible answer. robin thought about the way barney kept kissing her face, it would just be unfair to kevin to continue with this lie any longer.

robin gets out of the cab and into the bar. 

it’s almost 1 am at this point. he’s in pure agony. marshal, lily and ted are in their usual booth but barney keeps going to the bar every 5 minutes and looking at the door, or his phone. he told them he’d just broken up with nora so no one is particularly suspicious of his strangeness tonight, which he’s glad. over and over her words ‘i wish last night never happened’ in his head. 

then she shows up. he’s leaning at the bar alone when he sees her. they both try to not to but their faces lit up. lily called from their booth “hey, robin! how’s kevin?”. robin gives him one look again before heading to them.

“hey, um. yeah, he’s fine, the doctor said nothing was wrong.” she sits “but we actually... um, we broke up”

barney stays at the bar and doesn’t go to their booth, though. he doesn’t want to have to act right now, he can’t really think about that. so he decides to just wait for her there.

robin talks to the gang for a few minutes, tells them kevin was the one who broke things off. truth is, she’s exhausted. this lying and acting and pretending, she just wants to be done with it. “i’m just gonna say hi to barney”. marshal says something about barney being a little weird tonight but robin leaves without listening.

“hi” he starts as she sits beside him. relief.

“hey” she smiles as his shoulders relax “so, are you okay?”

“it was tough but i’m okay, yes. you?” “same thing”

“you wanna-” “yeah” 

they both wave to the guys and leave very quickly. they walk to a coffee place nearby that stays open late and on the way, they each tell their stories of their disastrous evening. robin laughs at barney’s dramatic reenacting of his face when he saw nora’s parents at the apartment but he gives it to her after she tells him kevin got them kicked out of the hospital reception “no, you win”.

as they sit side by side on the couch, he grabs her hand in his and stares at it for a while. “this is scary, isn’t it?” barney says. he’d be concerned she’d take it the wrong way if she wasn’t robin scherbatsky herself. but robin scherbatsky understands perfectly what he means.

sure enough, she agrees. they stay there talking for a quite some time. it’s not all about the future, the topic of conversation comes and goes, as neither of them are particularly good at it. the tension and seriousness of everything wears off faster at each laugh and touch. 

this feels safe and effortless, robin thinks to herself. and she can tell barney’s thinking the same thing too. “why couldn’t we just... do this” she gestures to both of them “back then? this just feels-”

“easy. i don’t know, i guess for me i didn’t know what i was doing nor how i was supposed to tell you that, which sucked and i’m sorry”

“i didn’t know shit either” she laughs.

there’s this thing between them, barney knows, it’s irrational, but they’re connected. he could never look at her and not feel it there, he could never see her with someone else and not be aware of it. sure, he loves being her friend but this thing keeps reminding him that it could never be just that. and it doesn’t go away, it never goes away, it never tones down. it’s always there and she feels it too. right now, as they’re looking at each other, he can almost see it.

“but i’m tired” robin continues. it’s very late, barney knows she means literally but he knows she also means that she is tired of fighting.

it's crazy, they make so much sense. robin speaks the same language as him, she gets it. robin understands and appreciates his need for space and independence, because she's the same. she knows what it's like to cling on youth so desperately, she knows what it's like to not be able to make yourself vulnerable. it's the reason he'd never feel judged by her, as he'd never judge her. they get along so indisputably well. robin is the coolest person he knows, he meant it every single time he said that. barney can't imagine feeling this comfortable with anyone else in the world.

he places a hand on her neck and kisses her cheek first, then her lips.

“you know i don’t believe in fate or destiny or stuff like that. but sometimes when we’re hanging out i just- i can’t help it- sometimes i think you’re _it_ for me"

“so... either we’re explosive together or we’re, you know, _it_ but we just weren’t ready back then? and tonight, we’re betting on us”

barney smiles widely “i think that’s about it, scherbatsky.”

she’s not the same robin from two years ago and he’s not the same barney either. it’s timing. but the point is they have time to figure things out. that’s them. that’s always been them: doing things because they feel right, when they feel right. and it’s the reason they are drawn to each other, have been since day one, actually.

after that, they drift off subject again. barney tells robin how high marshal was when he got to the bar that night while they’re leaving the cafe and heading to robin’s apartment.

“i’m in love with you” he blurts out as they’re going up the stairs of her building. “good, cause i’m in love with you” she answers, cupping his face and kissing him. 

kind of like the night before, they rush to the bedroom. this time it doesn’t feel as time is slipping through their hands, though. it feels like the start of something great. 


End file.
